From Ingot to Wafers

Shaping
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Edge Rounding
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Etching
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Inspection
Packaging
Shipping
 Epitaxy
Epitaxy is a kind of interface between a thin film and a
substrate. The term epitaxy (Greek; epi "above" and taxis "in
ordered manner") describes an ordered crystalline growth on
a monocrystalline substrate. Epitaxial films may be grown
from gaseous or liquid precursors. Because the substrate
acts as a seed crystal, the deposited film takes on a lattice
structure and orientation identical to those of the substrate.
This is different from other thin-film deposition methods
which deposit polycrystalline or amorphous films, even on
single-crystal substrates. If a film is deposited on a substrate
of the same composition, the process is called homoepitaxy;
otherwise it is called heteroepitaxy.
This technology is quite similar to what happens in
CVD processes, however, if the substrate is an
ordered semiconductor crystal (i.e. silicon, gallium
arsenide), it is possible with this process to continue
building on the substrate with the same
crystallographic orientation with the substrate acting
as a seed for the deposition. If an
amorphous/polycrystalline substrate surface is used,
the film will also be amorphous or polycrystalline.
 Film deposited on a
<111> oriented wafer
<111> orientation

The presence of SiO2

Layer cause depositing
atoms have no
structurepolysilicon

Epitaxial and polysilicon film growth

Homoepitaxy is a kind of epitaxy performed with only one
material. In omoepitaxy, a crystalline film is grown on a
substrate or film of the same material. This technology is
applied to growing a more purified film than the substrate and
fabricating layers with different doping levels.

Heteroepitaxy is a kind of epitaxy performed with materials

that are different from each other. In heteroepitaxy, a
crystalline film grows on a crystalline substrate or film of
another material. This technology is often applied to growing
crystalline films of materials of which single crystals cannot be
obtained and to fabricating integrated crystalline layers of
different materials. Examples include gallium nitride (GaN) on
sapphire or aluminium gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP) on
gallium arsenide (GaAs).
Heterotopotaxy is a process similar to
heteroepitaxy except for the fact that thin
film growth is not limited to two dimensional
growth. Here the substrate is similar only in
structure to the thin film material.
 Applications

It has applications in Nanotechnology and in

Semiconductor Fabrication. Indeed, epitaxy is the only
affordable method of High Crystalline Quality Growth
for many semiconductor materials, including
technologically important materials as silicon-
germanium, gallium nitride, gallium arsenide and indium
phosphide.

Epitaxy is also used to grow layers of PRE-DOPED

SILICON on the polished sides of silicon wafers, before
they are processed into semiconductor devices. This is
typical of power devices, such as those used in
pacemakers, vending machine controllers, automobile
computers, etc.
 Applications of epitaxial layers

1. Discrete and power devices

2. Integrated circuits
3. Epitaxy for MOS devices
 1. Discrete and power devices
Technology change: junction transistors diffused
planar structure
Requires a material structure that are not achieved by diffusion
of dopants from the surface
Si epitaxy was developed to enhance the electrical
performance of discrete bipolar transistors
Breakdown voltage of the discrete transistor was limited
by the field avalanche breakdown of the substrate
material
Use higher resistivity substrates produced higher breakdown
voltages but increased collector series resistance
Structure needed: thin, lightly doped and single crystal
layer of high perfection upon more heavily doped Si
substrate
But, the use of a more heavily doped substrate reduces the
collector series resistance while the base-collector breakdown
voltage is governed by the lighter doping in the near surface
region
 Epitaxial deposition of a lightly doped P+ epitaxial
layer on a N+ substrate make the desired properties
are achievable
Epitaxial grows also allows accurate control of doping
levels and advantages which arises from a generally
low oxygen and carbon levels in epitaxial layer
Epitaxial technique was developed to 2 and 3 layers
epitaxial structure
For lightly doped area of collector
Based region was also grown epitaxially
E.g. of multilayer structures: Si-Controlled Rectifier
(SCR), Triac, high voltage or high power discrete
products
Mesa discrete transistor fabricated in an epitaxial
layer on a heavily doped N+ substrate
 Transistors

Diodes
 2. Integrated circuit (IC)
Development of planar bipolar IC caused the requirement for
devices built on the same substrate to be electrically isolated
The use of opposite typed substrate and epitaxial layer met
part of the requirement
Device isolation was completed by the diffusion of isolation
region through the epitaxial layer to contact the substrate
between active areas
In planar bipolar circuits, common to employ a heavily doped
diffused (or implanted) region under the transistor
Usually called buried layer or DUF for diffusion under film
The buried layer
serves to lower the lateral series resistance between collector area
below the emitter and the collector contact
produce uniform planar operation of the emitter, avoiding current
crowding which leads to hot spots near edges of the emitter
Integrated circuits
 3. Epitaxy for MOS devices
Unipolar devices such as junction field-effect
transistors (JFETs), VMOS, DRAMs technology
also use epitaxial structures
VLSI CMOS (complimentary metal-oxide-
semiconductor) devices have been built in thin
(3-8 micron) lightly doped epitaxial layers on
heavily doped substrates of the same type (N or
P)
That epitaxial structure reduces the latch up of high
density CMOS IC by reducing the unwanted
interaction of closely spaced devices
(a) A junction isolated bipolar
device fabricated as part of an
integrated circuit using a buried
layer subcollector and a lightly
doped n-epitaxial layer

(b) An N-Well CMOS structure

fabricated in a lightly doped p-
epitaxial layer
 Advantages of epitaxy
Ability to place a lightly oppositely doped
region over a heavily doped region
Ability to contour and tailor the doping
profile in ways not possible using diffusion
or implantation alone
Provide a layer of oxygen free material
that is also contained low carbon
 Techniques for silicon epitaxy
1. Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)
2. Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MEB)
3. Liquid Phase Epitaxy (LPE)
4. Solid phase regrowth
 1. Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)
The most common technique in Si epitaxy
In the CVD technique
Si substrate is heated in a chamber: sufficient heat
to allow the depositing Si atoms to move into
position to
Reactive Si containing gaseous compounds are
introduced
Gaseous react on the hot surface of the substrate
and deposit a Si layer
The deposit will take on Si substrate structure if the
substrate is atomically clean and the temperature
is sufficient for atoms to have surface mobility
Schematic drawing of a simple horizontal flow, cold
wall, CVD reactor
Schematic CVD reactor geometries for
(a) True vertical reactor
(b) Classic horizontal flow reactor
(c) Modified vertical (or pancake) reactor
(d) Downflow cylinder reactor
CVD processes and products
CVD for silicon devices
 CVD reactions
1. Pyrolysis: chemical reaction is driven by heat alone, e.g. silane
decomposes with heating
SiH4 Si + 2H2

2. Reduction: chemical reaction by reacting a molecule with

hydrogen, e.g. silicon tetrachloride- reduction in hydrogen ambient
to form solid silicon
SiCl4 + 2H2 Si + 4HCl

3. Oxidation: chemical reaction of an atom or molecule with oxygen,

e.g. SiH4 decomposes at lower temperature
SiH4 + O2 SiO2 + 2H2
4. Nitridation: chemical process of forming silicon nitride by exposing
Si wafer to nitrogen at high temperature e.g. SiH2Cl2 readily
decomposes at 1050C
3SiH2Cl2 + 4NH3 Si3N4 + pH + 6H2
CVD
 CVD film growth steps
1. Nucleation
Dependent on substrate quality
Occurs at first few atoms or molecules deposit on a surface
2. Nuclei growth
Atoms or molecules form islands that grow into larger islands
3. Island coalescence
The islands spread , and coalescing into a continuous film
This is the transition stage of the film growth, thickness several
hundreds Angstroms
Transition region film possesses different chemical and
physical properties for thicker bulk film
4. Bulk growth
Bulk growth begins after transition film is formed
 CVD film growth steps

Types of film
structure

Amorphous

Polycrystalline

Single crystal
Basic CVD subsystem
 CVD Process steps:

Pre-clean Deposition Evaluation

Pre-clean: remove particulates and mobile

ionic contaminants
Deposition:
Load wafer into Introduce
chamber, inert Heat chemical Remove vapour
atmosphere vapour

Evaluation: thickness, step coverage, purity,

Flush excess
cleanliness and composition chemical
vapour source
 Vapor Phase Epitaxy
Silicon is most commonly deposited from silicon
tetrachloride in hydrogen at approximately 1200 C:
SiCl4(g) + 2H2(g) Si(s) + 4HCl(g)
This reaction is reversible, and the growth rate depends
strongly upon the proportion of the two source gases.
Growth rates above 2 micrometres per minute produce
polycrystalline silicon, and negative growth rates
(etching) may occur if too much hydrogen chloride
byproduct is present. (In fact, hydrogen chloride may be
added intentionally to etch the wafer.) An additional
etching reaction competes with the deposition reaction:
SiCl4(g) + Si(s) 2SiCl2(g)
 Silicon VPE may also use silane, dichlorosilane, and
trichlorosilane source gases. For instance, the silane
reaction occurs at 650 C in this way:
SiH4 Si + 2H2
This reaction does not inadvertently etch the wafer, and
takes place at lower temperatures than deposition from
silicon tetrachloride. However, it will form a
polycrystalline film unless tightly controlled, and it allows
oxidizing species that leak into the reactor to
contaminate the epitaxial layer with unwanted
compounds such as silicon dioxide.
VPE is sometimes classified by the chemistry of the
source gases, such as hydride VPE and metalorganic
VPE.
 VPE Advantages/Disadvantages
Low temperature process
High purity (low defect density) material
Readily automated for mass production
Ability to grow thin layers with precise
composition, doping density, thickness O
on an atomic scale for advanced systems)
Well suited to research has opened new
physics
 Disadvantages

Toxic gases are used must have gas monitors

and stainless steel plumbing.
The exhaust pump system includes a scrubber
that breaks down toxic end products before
atmospheric release.
Research systems are expensive, as are many
of the precursors (purchased as pressurized
gases in cylinders or as bubblers VPE works
well with Si and GaAs (usually not used) and
related elemental and compound
semiconductors
 Liquid Phase Epitaxy (LPE)
LPE technique is widely used for preparation of epitaxial
layers on compound semiconductors and for magnetic
bubble memory films on garnet substrate
In films growth by LPE from solution melts, low cooling
rates, when the surface reaction (growth)
Kinetics are rapid compare to the mass transport of Si to
the seed, epitaxial layer thickness will vary in proportion
to the temperature drop
Increase cooling rates, mass transport rate will increase
and the growth rate will increase with cooling rate until
growth rate becomes limited by surface reaction kinetics
 Liquid Phase Epitxy

LPE deposits a monocrystalline film from the liquid

phase, typically at a rate of 0.1 to 1 m/minute.
Liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) is a method to grow
semiconductor crystal layers from the melt on solid
substrates. This happens at temperatures well below the
melting point of the deposited semiconductor. The
semiconductor is dissolved in the melt of another
material. At conditions that are close to the equilibrium
between dissolution and deposition the deposition of the
semiconductor crystal on the substrate is slowly and
uniform. The equilibrium conditions depend very much
on the temperature and on the concentration of the
dissolved semiconductor in the melt. The growth of the
layer from the liquid phase can be controlled by a forced
cooling of the melt. Impurity introduction can be strongly
reduced. Doping can be achieved by the addition of
dopants.
 The method is mainly used for the growth of
compound semiconductors. Very thin, uniform
and high quality layers can be produced. A
typical example for the liquid phase epitaxy
method is the growth of ternery and quarternery
III-V compounds on Galliumarsenid GaAs
substrates. As a solvent quite often Gallium is
used in this case. Another frequently used
substrate is Indiumphosphide InP. However also
other substrates like glass or ceramic can be
applied for special applications. To facilitate
nucleation, and to avoid tension in the grown
layer the thermal expansion coefficient of
substrate and grown layer should be similar.
 Growth rate increases with
cooling rate up to about 1
degree/min while growth rate
above 2 degree/min occurred
under kinetically limited
conditions

LPE growth rate increasing with

cooling rate up to about 1 micron per
minute
Schematic drawing of a typical silicon liquid
phase epitaxy (LPE)
Fabrication sequence for a vertical
channel field effect transistor
N and N+ epitaxial structure can be
built using liquid or vapour phase
epitaxial growth
Preferential etching can be used to
open areas part way through the N
type epitaxial layer
In this figure, LPE is used to fill the
etched out gate areas which control
current flow vertically from the top
side source to the N+ substrate drain
region

Schematic of fabrication steps in the fabrication

vertical field effect transistors by etch and LPE refill
techniques
 ADVANTAGES OF LPE

1. Simple
2. Inexpensive
3. Rather non-hazardous
4. Suitable for selective growth
5. Al and Sb compounds possible
6. Highly suitable for simple structures
 DISADVATAGES OF LPE

1. Too simple to grow quantum structures

2. Thickness control and composition control
difficult
3. Redissolution of the grown material
4. High growth temperatures for certain
compounds (e.g. GaAs at ~ 800-900 oC but
InP at ~ 600 oC)
5. Fe doping (for semi-insulation) difficult
because of low distribution coefficient
 2. Molecular Bean Epitaxy (MBE)

Uses an evaporation method

MBE is carried out at a lower temperature than 1000-
1200C (typical CVD temperature)
Reduces outdiffusion of local areas of dopant diffused
into substrates and reduce autodoping which is
unintentionally transfer of dopant into epitaxial layer
MBE is favourable
preparation of sub-micron thickness epitaxial layers or
high frequency devices requiring hyper-abrupt transition in the
doping concentration between the epitaxial layer and the
substrate
Molecular beam Epitaxy (MBE)
Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is basically a
sophisticated form of Vacuum Evaporation.
Molecular Beams of the constituent elements are
generated from sources and travel without Scattering to
a substrate where they combine to form an epitaxial film.
In solid source MBE, material is Evaporated from solid
ingots by heating or with an electron beam.
The Rate of growth depends on the flux of material
in the molecular beams which can be controlled by
the evaporation rate and, most importantly, switched
on and off with shutters in a fraction of the time
required to grow one monolayer (ML).
 MBE epitaxial process involves the reaction of one or
more thermal beams of atoms or molecules with
crystalline surface under ultrahigh vacuum
conditions.
Single crystal Multilayer of the order of atomic layers
can be made using MBE.
MBE growth rates are quite low.(1micrometer per
hour)
Separate effusion ovens made of pyrolytic boron nitride
are used for Ga, As and the dopants.
The substrate holder rotates to obtain uniform epitaxial
layers.
An overpressure of As is maintained to grow GaAs.
Effusion ovens behave like small area sources and
exhibit a cos emission.( is angle b/w normal of wafer
surface and source).
 Typical growth rates are 1 ML per second, or 1
micron per hour, which is equivalent to a pressure
of 10-6mbar arriving at the substrate in the
molecular beams.
Great trouble is taken to ensure that negligible
quantities of Impurity atoms are introduced into the
material: substrates are carefully prepared and
cleaned; only ultra pure sources are used.
The reaction chamber is evacuated to <10-11mbar
and the walls of the chamber cooled with liquid
nitrogen.
Even so the highest mobility layers are only grown
after an extended run when the machinery has
completely cleaned itself.
 The basic principle of epitaxial growth is that
atoms on a clean surface are free to move
around until they find a correct position in the
crystal lattice to bond.
Growth occurs at the step edges formed since at
an edge an atom experiences more binding
forces than on the free surface.
In practice there will be more than one nucleation
site on a surface and so growth is by the
spreading or islands.
In high quality material these islands will be large
with height differences of less than a ML.
 In MBE,
Si and dopant(s) are evaporated in an ultra high vacuum
(UHV) chamber
The evaporated atoms are transported at relatively high
velocity in a straight line from the source to the substrate
They condense on the low temperature substrate
The condensed atoms of Si or dopant will diffuse on the
surface until they reach a low energy site that they fit well the
atomic structure of the surface
The adatom then bonds in that low energy site, extending
the underlying crystal by a vapour to solid phase crystal
growth
Usual temperature range of the substrate is 400-800C.
Higher than 800C is possible but it will increase outdiffusion
or lateral diffusion of dopants in the substrate
Schematic drawing of a molecular beam
epitaxial system
 Insitu cleaning of the substrate
Can be done by high temperature bake at 1000-1250C for
several minutes under high vacuum to decompose the native
surface oxide and to remove other surface contaminants
Other technique is by using a low energy beam of inert gas to
sputter clean the substrate
Difficult to remove carbon but will decrease at the surface by
diffusion into the substrate during short anneal at 800-900C
Wider range of dopants for MBE than CVD epitaxy:
Typical dopants: Antimony, Sb (N-type), aluminum, Al or gallium
(Ga) for P-type
N-type dopant: As and P, evaporate rapidly even at 200C.
Difficult to control
P-type dopant: Boron, evaporate slowly even at 1300C
Schematic drawing of a multiple chamber MBE
system
MBE Equipment
 The mobility of an atom on the surface will be greater
at higher substrate temperature resulting in smoother
interfaces, but higher temperatures also lead to a
lower "sticking coefficient" and more migration of
atoms within the layers already grown.
In practice the beams do not contain individual
atoms, but molecular species like As2 or As4. These
are cracked at the surface and the efficiency of the
process is also temperature dependent.
Clearly there will be a compromise temperature to
achieve the best results.
For GaAs this is ~600o C, while for SiGe alloys a
much higher temperature is used, up to 950o C.
 Metal Organic CVD (MOCVD)
MOCVD is also a VPE process based on
Pyrolytic Reactions.
MOCVD is important for those elements that do
not form stable hydrides or halides but form
stable Metal Organic compounds with
reasonable vapour pressure.
MOCVD has been extensively applied in the
Hetero-epitaxial Growth Of III-V And II-VI
Compounds.
To grow GaAs, metal organic compounds such
as trimethylgallium Ga(CH3) for the gallium
component and aresine AsH3 for Arsenic
component.
 The overall reaction is
AsH 3 Ga(CH 3 ) 3 GaAs 3CH 4
For Al-containing compounds , such as AlAs, we can
use Trimethylgallium Ga(CH3)3.
During Epitaxy, the GaAs is doped by introducing
dopants in vapour form.
Diethylzine(Zn(C2H5)2) is a p-type dopant and
Silane is the n-type dopant for III-V compounds.
The metal organic compound is transported to quartz
reaction vessel by hydrogen carrier gas, where its is
mixed with AsH3
Temperature is between 600C-800C and is used to
heat gases above a substrate placed on graphite
susceptor during radio frequency heating.
Quartz reactor

Wafer

RF Power
 4. Solid Phase Re-growth
i. Re-growth of amorphous layers
Surface layers subjected to high dose ion implants are
in amorphous structure due to the heavy damage
inflicted on the lattice as the energetic ions are
absorbed
Annealing above 600C amorphous layer re-
crystallize
Re-crystallisation occurs from interface moves toward
the surface and results in solid phase epitaxial re-
growth
ii. Re-crystallisation of thin films
Involves re-crystallisation of a deposited amorphous or
polysilicon film
Si film is deposited on a Si substrate or more commonly SiO2
heated using a strip heater passed over the surface or by a
scanned pulsed laser to crystallise the film to single crystal or
large grain polysilicon
This fabrication technique is used to produce a stacked n-channel
device in re-crystallised polysilicon on a thermally grown or
deposited oxide
Oriented epitaxial growth can be obtained by making series of
holes in the oxide to allow points of contact between the
underlying substrate and the deposited polysilicon
The contact points become seeds areas for establishing re-
growth orientation
 Re-crystallisation solid phase
epitaxy using a moving strip heater

A stacked MOS structure over an

insulating oxide fabricated in a re-
crystallised polysilicon layer
 Structure and defects in epitaxial layer

Surface morphology of Silicon epitaxial deposits is

affected by growth and substrate parameters
Growth parameters:
Temperature
Pressure
Concentration of Si containing gas
Cl : H2 ratio
Substrates parameters
Substrate orientation
Defects in the substrate
Contaminants on the surface of the substrate
 Typical defects in epitaxial layers

1. Substrate orientation effects

2. Spikes and epitaxial stacking faults
3. Hillocks and pyramids in epitaxial layers
4. Dislocations and slip
5. Microprecipitates (S-pits)
 1. Substrate orientation effect
Growth of smooth epitaxial films can be obtained on
(100) and (110) oriented Si substrates
Epitaxial growth on substrate surface on oriented on
(111) plane results in facetted alligator skin surface
(111) surfaces contain no atomic steps to provide a density of
growth sites
Without atomic steps, the growth produces pyramids and
terraces
Misorientation of the surface by 0.5 degree
introduces a sufficient density of steps for growth of
smooth planar films
 2. Spikes and epitaxial stacking faults

i. Growth spike
Originate from Si particle on the surface not removed
by the pre-epitaxial cleaning process
Si Chips may expose faster growing crystal planes
than the plane of the substrate
Chips nucleate and produce polysilicon nodule. The
chips then protrude above the substrates surface into
a region of richer supply of gaseous reactants
Results in nodule grows at 2-10 times the rate of
epitaxial film on the substrate.
May be removed mechanically before the next step
but will leave a region unusable for functional
materials
ii. Epitaxial stacking faults
Crystallographic in nature and arise from defects in
atomic arrangement during film growth
Could result from an extra atomic layer (extrinsic fault)
or a missing atomic layer (intrinsic fault) along {111}
type plane
Epitaxial growth spike Stacking fault on <111> Si
 3. Hillocks and pyramids in epitaxial layers

Hillocks: Small oval mounds on the surface of the

epitaxial
Pyramids: Faceted regions on the epitaxial surface
Density of hillocks and pyramids is dependent on
growth parameters such as type and concentration of
Si source and deposition temperature
 4. Dislocations and slip
Non-uniform heating of a substrate results in non-uniform thermal
expansion of the substrate which produces elastic stresses
The thermal stress can cause bowing which may lift the edge of
the substrate away from the substrate in response to the thermal
stress
At lower temperature (< 900C) the yield point of the Si lattice is
sufficiently high that the substrate behaves elastically. During
cooling, the thermal stress is removed and the substrate returns
to its original shape
If the stress exceeds a critical values, the substrate will yield
plastically occurs due to generation and motion of dislocations
which are atomic level line defects which glide along slip planes
of the crystal
 The passage of one dislocation offsets the material above and
below the slip plane by a unit known as Bergers vector of the
dislocations
Dislocations normally propagate from near the edge of the
substrate (highest stress), and glide towards the centre of the
substrate and produce plastic deformation of the substrate which
relieves the thermal stress
Dislocation motions is slow because dislocation moves to a
region of lower shear stress
The continuous slow motion of the dislocations produces creep
deformation of the crystal
Device impact from slip normally comes from rapid pipe
diffusion of dopant along the core of the dislocations
 Typical wafer edge slip as a
result of excessive within
wafer temperature
Crystal slip gradients during heating or
during epitaxial film growth
 5. Microprecipitates (S-pits)
Microprecipitates may come from metallic elements
such as copper, nickel, iron and chromium
This is due to their solubility in Si at high temperatures
and fast diffusion rates through the Si
The metal contaminants may exist in the starting
substrates or being pick up during handling in the
loading operation or from metal parts or susceptors
within the epitaxial reactor itself